Brunch invitations with a start time and an end time

The appeal of brunch is that it uses the part of the weekend nobody has plans for. Guests are already awake, nobody needs a babysitter, and the whole thing is over before the afternoon disappears. The risk is also in the timing: start too early and half the table is quiet and under-caffeinated, leave the finish open and you are still refilling coffee at four o'clock.

Set the window in the invitation. Bringalong builds the event in about a minute and gives you a link to share in a group chat, with replies, plus ones, dietary notes and a bring list if you want one. Guests answer in their phone browser without signing up for anything, and they can push the date straight into their own calendar.

The right start time is 11, not 10

An 11am start is the one that works. It gives guests a slow morning, a gym class or the school run, and it means you are serving food at a time when people are hungry rather than polite. At 10am you get stragglers and one person who already ate. At noon it stops being brunch and becomes lunch, which changes what people expect on the plate.

A clean shape for a Sunday: 11:00 arrival with coffee and pastries out, 11:30 the hot dish lands, 12:30 the table loosens up and people go back for seconds, 1:30 you make a second pot of coffee, 2:00 it winds down. That is three hours, which is long enough to feel like a proper gathering and short enough that you get your Sunday afternoon back.

• 11:00 to 2:00 for a mixed group of adults.
• 10:00 to 12:30 if small children are coming, so you finish before nap time.
• 12:00 to 3:00 for a birthday brunch, where people will stay anyway.
• 11:30 on a holiday Monday, because nobody is in a hurry.
• Add a 30-minute arrival window and name the time the food goes out.

Cook the night before, assemble in the morning

Brunch rewards make-ahead cooking more than any other meal, because almost nothing suffers from sitting in the fridge overnight. Do the work on Saturday evening and your Sunday morning becomes an hour of oven-watching instead of a scramble with a whisk.

Keep one thing hot and generous at the center, add two cold things, and buy the bread. Eggs cooked to order for nine people is the one choice that will keep you at the stove while everyone else eats.

• A savory strata or breakfast casserole: assemble the night before, bake 45 to 55 minutes at 350 F, 175 C. One 9 by 13 pan feeds 8 to 10.
• Baked French toast, same method, same pan, same yield.
• Bacon on a sheet pan at 400 F, 200 C, for 18 to 20 minutes. Two sheets at once, no spatter, no standing over it.
• Overnight oats or yogurt with roasted fruit, portioned into glasses the night before.
• Fruit salad cut in the morning. Citrus and melon hold; banana and apple do not.
• Pastries from a bakery, counted at 1.5 per adult. There is no prize for making your own croissants.
• Coffee: 2 cups per adult for the first hour. A 12-cup pot serves about 6 people once.
• Sparkling wine for mimosas: one bottle per three people, plus a liter of orange juice per two bottles.

Kids at brunch, handled

Brunch is the one adult-social slot that works with children, which is why parents say yes to it. Make that easy rather than accidental. Ask on the invite how many children are coming and their ages, because a 10-month-old and a seven-year-old need completely different things from your living room.

Feed the children first, at a low table or outside, with food they recognize: cut fruit, plain pancakes, scrambled eggs, bread and butter. Then the adults eat in relative peace. Put a box of books, paper and crayons in one corner and point at it when you open the door. Say in the invite whether you have a high chair, because a parent who knows the answer can bring their own seat.

• Ask for ages in the RSVP, not a headcount of "kids".
• Serve the children at 11:15, before the adult dish comes out.
• Say whether you have a high chair, a travel cot or a safe garden.
• Keep one room off limits and shut the door before anyone arrives.
• If you want an adults-only brunch, write it once, kindly, and give a reason: "grown-ups only this time, the flat is tiny."

How to word a 2pm finish

An end time on a brunch invitation reads as helpful, not cold, as long as you attach it to something. "11 to 2" on its own is fine. "11 to 2, we have to collect the dog at 2:30" is better, because it is obviously true and nobody takes it personally.

Three wordings that work: "brunch from 11, winding down around 2", "11am to 2pm, come for any part of it", and "11 till 2, then we're kicking everyone out into the sunshine." If people are still happily there at 2:20, that is a successful party. The end time is there to stop a guest planning to stay until six, not to be enforced with a stopwatch.

Use the replies to size the pan

The difference between eight and twelve guests at brunch is one extra pan and two more liters of juice, so you want the number by Friday morning. Set your reply date accordingly and ask the one question that changes your shopping list: coffee or tea.

Your manage link on Bringalong shows Going, Maybe and Can't go with notes attached, and you can export the list if you want to shop from your phone. Count Maybes at half for food, since late-morning plans fall through more than evening ones. If you are running a bring list, the obvious slots are pastries, fruit, juice and ice, which are the four things guests can pick up on the way without any cooking.